As a follow-up to my rant on issues about which I'm surprised to find myself in the minority opinion, California overwhelmingly passedProposition 71, guaranteeing the distribution of $3 billion over the next ten years expressly for stem-cell research. I voted for this, and it's comforting not to be in the minority at least in my home state. When wealthy red-staters want a replacement liver, they'll not only be the spark plugs that drive a burgeoning, lucrative, and medically beneficial economic engine, but also provide a handy influx of tourist dollars while visiting for treatment from their homelands, where it will be illegal to do anything with unused embryos except flush them down the toilet, while compulsorily clasping one's hands and praying for His mercy that it wind up a happy little piece of biohazardous goo in heaven.
Interestingly, filling out my absentee ballot was the first time I found out that human cloning is prohibited under state law. I promptly incinerated my master blueprint for an assembly-line complex to mass-produce clones of Steve Perry from Journey, the prettiest man alive.
My notebook computer at home is making a buzzing noise. That can't be good. I'm screwed if it fails.
I bought the Powerbook not as a replacement for it, but to supplement it and as a travel solution (because, obviously, I am the man they had in mind when they coined the term "jet set"). Now I'm thinking of losing all my precious data and regretting not investing that money in either a series of backup solutions (redundant external hard drives) or a newer notebook PC, using the cost differential between it and the Powerbook to also purchase a single external backup drive.
I'm a minimalist when it comes to material possessions. I rarely own more than two or three pairs of pants simultaneously. I have three pieces of furniture in my room, and one of them has wheels. I rarely buy replacement light bulbs when the old ones burn out (some would argue that it's "laziness", but no, I prefer "deliberate possession entropy"). Despite this physical asceticism, I'm a total pack-rat when it comes to computers, tweaking them to my exact preferences, never deleting anything unless I run entirely out of space, and depending on them for a litany of tasks ranging from multiple forms of communication to media archiving to, bar none, my primary means of acquiring information (including, but not limited to, research, news, bloggers' idiosyncrasies, and erotic literature). When I get a new machine, it's more like changing apartments than hairdressers (granted: a better apartment every time, but still a colossal hassle [also granted: I've been cutting my own hair for six years, so the hairdresser comparison is part speculation]).
It's really annoying to realize I'm old enough that my accrued memories and habits are more important to me than upgrading the tool with which they're formed.
"Moral" issues were important in this campaign to an extent that surprised many, myself included. Two primary ones were stem cell research and gay marriage.
I'm continually surprised at how much of a minority I am with respect to these two. They don't even seem like issues to me - I feel like I'm staring at the answer key to a math problem which doesn't reconcile with what I thought was my no-brainer solution. It's that same sense of "ok, what didn't I account for?", and checking, a dozen times, that I made my calculations properly, only to have a dissonant result stare me in the face.
On other issues (say, Iraq), I can at least understand - not agree with, but recognize as an argument - the line of reasoning. When I look to these however, I don't even see anything there, not even a paper tiger. It's like losing a debate to which your opponent didn't show up (which is fittingly what happened in KY with Bunning and Mongiardo). It's not that I've never heard persuasive logic, it's that their appears to be no logic whatsoever.
I really hope the Democrats don't debase themselves by swinging hard to the right on these issues, but something tells me that will be their knee-jerk response. I'd much rather have them reformulate their communication strategy to better educate and persuade voters, especially regarding stem-cells. I accept that certain people will dig in their heels and refuse to change their minds about same-sex marriage because of their intractable moral outlook, but I suspect the resistance to stem cell research is a product of disinformation and lack of education.
I've got... lots to say today (not necessarily all politically-oriented), but even more work to do, so I'll just start out with this and hope I can get around to the rest later: I am beginning to wonder whether the progressive movement of the first half of twentieth century American politics was an aberrance, given the opportunity to make a mark by the fluke of an ephemeral populist surge and one catastrophic economic market breakdown, and only allowed the sustained duration to make that mark effectual through the administrative buttressing of two international conflicts (the Spanish-American War and WWII, both of which helped put or keep a Roosevelt in office). If so, what we have seen over the past 25 years is more of a course correction than the cyclical swing of a political pendulum, the continuation of a long, slow, inexorable descent into a world full of tickling the erogenous zones that are our wallets and reactionary, sentimental anxiety.
I strayed from my common routine and turned on the television this morning while preparing for workplace travel to indulge in a little election coverage. CNN seemed to be the most focused, so I leant an eye in their direction while brushing my teeth and putting up power squats of over 40 stone.
Two thoughts:
1) Karl Rove not only uses a Motorola T730 but flaunts it by gabbing loudly to Ed Gillespie (ooh, the GOP chairman has a "BLOG") in front of the press corps. I've always considered the man miscreant, but this is the first time I've thought him clueless (did someone say "the Yugo of cell phones"?). Either that or he's more of a panderer than I heretofore conceived possible by buying American (nominally - the phone was designed and manufactured in China) even when it comes to his phone.
2) In the brief period of time in which I watched the Cable News Network they ran two self-congratulatory pieces, one regarding how they overhauled their prediction system as to not jump to any conclusions and call a state prematurely as in 2000, and another touting their use of the NASDAQ Market Site and its "96 television monitors" tonight. I know producers love to make movies about making movies and rappers love to pen lyrics about setting it off in this rap game, but something tells me that if my company released a mobile phone application letting the user simulate the mobile phone application development cycle it would tank. Maybe that's a specious analogy and I'm ignoring the quality of media in general to be singularly self-referencing and unabashedly self-promoting, but if I wanted a run-down of their awesome extravagance and impeccable trustworthiness I'd go visit the CNN center in Atlanta.
So I have a little weight problem. To be rotund is to be glorious, that's what Deng said. I wish I was like that girl who couldn't feel pain. All my classmates think my pain is amusing. My teacher shows no compassion. If the school district didn't mandate that she inoculate me, I don't think she'd even look my way. She ignores my ostracism and they way they taunt. Some day, I'll be a strike-breaker. I'll use my excessive mass to my advantage and crack the skulls of those little bastards as they try to prevent scabs from crossing the picket line. If things went sour I could flee to the outer provinces. A man can start over in the outer provinces.
This is really sad. For the first time in this blog's existence, the sidebar is now lengthier than the actual content (as of this entry's writing [but not necessarily appearance]), due to a recent dry spell of unparalleled proportions.
I've been feeling very anemic about blogging lately, and I can't pinpoint the reason. As I was saying to a (dear [platonic]) friend, I can accept that much (most [all])* of what I post here is crap, but I can't accept repeated failure to post it.
So this week, it's one post minimum per day, excluding posts referencing the one post per day requirement (like this one [but not the last one]). They will likely range from incoherent to didactic, but I will strive to make them all inane (like this one [and the last one]).
*Today is double-parenthetical day (see last post [post concerning navigational incompetence]). Traditionally held on the first Monday of November (though only during non-leap years [and in states or principalities beginning with a consonant]), double-parenthetical day honors lazy and ineloquent writers everywhere who aren't satisfied with mere sloppiness and feel the need to bask in excess equivocation, qualification, and maybe even a little insouciance (but not too much [though really, I don't give a damn]). Double-parenthetical day should not be confused with triple-parenthetical day, which is just silly.
Everyone has zoned out at least once during their morning commute and perpetrated a navigational blunder of some sort. Once or twice I've missed my subway stop, but this morning, after the biting realization that I'd just walked five blocks beyond my turn (thanks to cavorting the previous night with the libationary Mr. Friendsintown [that usual suspect of lost productivity and baggy-eyed zombiefication]), I became immensely thankful that I do not drive to work, jeopardizing the lives of countless innocents and one very naughty space cadet.
